If anything is obvious about the Orator in Chief, it is how highly he thinks of himself. The H for his middle name doesn’t stand for Humility.

James Taranto at the Wall Street Journal has a perfect explanation today of how this president, so obsessed with getting rave reviews, can’t overcome his urge to give himself rave reviews. As Taranto writes:

Imagine if President Nixon had decided to base his 1972 re-election campaign on the boast that he landed on the moon. His predecessors tried and failed for eight years. It wasn’t an easy decision–what if something went wrong? But that’s why you hire a president, to make those gutsy calls. Which path would George McGovern have taken?

That’s analogous to President Obama’s effort to campaign on the killing of Osama bin Laden. His absurd braggadocio is turning one of the few successes to occur under his leadership into a political liability.

Yeah, it’s even more awkward when you brag about yourself and the people who really did the deed are still around to hear you. Another headline:

Will Navy SEALs swift-boat Obama over the bin Laden raid? - “A backlash is growing to the victory dance over the terrorist’s death, fueling concerns that Obama’s biggest foreign policy success could be turned against him.”

As noted elsewhere at the Journal, “It’s hard to imagine Lincoln or Eisenhower claiming such credit for the heroic actions of others.”

In Michael Mukasey’s column, he mentions, “That is not to say that great leaders, including presidents, have not placed themselves at the center of great events. But generally it has been to accept responsibility for failure.”

The blowback continues from President Obama’s overreaching attempt to turn the killing of Osama bin Laden into a weapon with which directly to attack Mitt Romney. First, some Navy SEALS, the outfit whose members risked their lives to kill bin Laden, took exception. Then, a key operative at the CIA, who helped **noallow** intelligence that led us to bin Laden using practices opposed by Obama, balked.

"A recently disclosed memorandum from then-CIA Director Leon Panetta shows that the president’s celebrated derring-do in authorizing the operation included a responsibility-escape clause: “The timing, operational decision making and control are in Admiral McRaven’s hands. The approval is provided on the risk profile presented to the President. Any additional risks are to be brought back to the President for his consideration. The direction is to go in and get bin Laden and if he is not there, to get out.” Which is to say, if the mission went wrong, the fault would be Adm. McRaven’s, not the president’s."

Re: Obama knows how to turn an asset into a liability

Obama launches campaign in empty arenaOrganizers even had people move to floor to project larger crowd

5/5/2012

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(BREITBART) — Barack Obama launched his campaign in unspectacular fashion today at Ohio State University, the largest college in the crucial swing state. A photo posted to twitter by Mitt Romney’s campaign spokesman Ryan Williams reveals sparse attendance. The above image, according to Williams, was taken during the President’s first official campaign speech.

During the speech, Obama ripped into the presumptive GOP nominee and discussed nation building at home, but the most newsworthy item of the day was not the talking points Obama delivered: it was the crowd… or lack thereof.

According to ABC News, the Obama campaign had expected an “overflow” of people. Instead, the arena looked half-empty. The Columbus Dispatch reports that Obama organizers even had people move from the seats to the floor of the gym in order to project a larger crowd on television.